The New Communities Initiative (NCI) has been using the warm summer months as an opportunity to get out of the office and into the community for a bit of fun!  We have committed to greater community engagement and community building efforts as we reboot long-stalled development projects. If you came to one of our  “Juice Bar Thursday” gatherings at the Riverside Center or a “Tea Talk” at Heat Da Spot Cafe or Walls of Books on Georgia Avenue, then you know that we are working hard to live up to that commitment.

NCI has been using these gatherings as opportunities to connect with residents from NCI properties, other community members and stakeholders to ask questions like:  What makes your community feel like home?  Even as it changes, what would you like to see? What role can you play in growing your community in a way that embraces positive change, but also protects the things you love?

Thus far, many of the conversations have been small but very rich.  At NCI, we believe that we must have these conversations and then turn them into action. We want to build successful real estate projects that deliver on long-standing promises for revitalization without displacement; ensure economic mobility for low-income residents; and unify community members through mutual respect and shared values for equity and progress.

Check out the events section of our NCI newsletters, as well as our website, www.dcnewcommunities.org, to see where we are popping up next. Join us in the neighborhoods for food, fellowship, and fruitful discussion.

In addition to checking out our website, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, email us at dc.newcommunities@dc.gov with ideas, questions, or concerns, and sign up here for a neighborhood-specific newsletter.

Thank you for your interest in and commitment to the New Communities Initiative.

Sincerely,

Angie Rodgers
Director, New Communities Initiative

On June 28th, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) presented to the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) Board about the subsidies needed to support NCI’s full development pipeline. A 2014 policy report recommended that NCI develop more realistic timelines and cost projections for its full pipeline. NCI began working on this in 2015, and recently completed its projections. The presentation in June outlined NCI’s full development pipeline (including what it will take to do full “build first” models in two of the four neighborhoods), total needed gap subsidies, and the impact of using more viable rent subsidies like vouchers on the gap amount.

In 2014, NCI delivered a 314-unit building, aptly named “2M” for the address where the building sits (2 M Street, NE). NCI partnered with developers WC Smith and the Warrenton Group on the building which contained 59 replacement units and 34 additional affordable units. 2M is unique in the NCI portfolio in many ways, but, notably, 2M has designed its multi-family building to include large size units for families. Set into the ground floor of the building facing M Street NE are nine, 4-bedroom townhouse-style units.  All are public housing replacement units.  They all have private doors and steps that open directly onto the street, but also have doors that allow residents to enter/exit through the apartment building’s main lobby. Because mixed-income redevelopments through NCI often involve transforming some of the old garden-style townhouse units (typical of many public housing developments constructed in the 1940s and 1950s) into multifamily developments, it is extremely important to incorporate design practices that allow us to also deliver the large units that many families need. NCI will continue to look into these and other design advancements that allow us to efficiently deliver multi-family developments that also make room for growing families.